Hungarian gets 7 years in prison for poisoning 'wine thief'

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A Hungarian man who wanted to teach thieves a lesson has been sentenced to seven years in prison for poisoning a person by putting anti-freeze in a barrel of sour cherry wine.

A Budapest regional court on Wednesday convicted the 39-year-old unidentified man of manslaughter and multiple counts of attempted manslaughter.

The man, from a village 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of Budapest, has admitted he added about 2 liters (2 quarts) of anti-freeze to the barrel in October 2013 after thieves repeatedly stole from it, but says he didn't intend to kill anyone and has appealed the court's ruling.

One of the suspected thieves died from kidney failure a few days after drinking the contaminated wine, while two of his friends who also drank some were not seriously injured.